Marie Curie - Physicist - Biography.com Marie Curie Marie Curie was a Polish-born French physicist famous for her work on radioactivity and twice a winner of the Nobel Prize. IN THESE GROUPS » quotes “I believe that Science has great beauty. A scientist in his laboratory is not a mere technician; he is also a child confronting natural phenomena that impress him as though they were fairy tales.” “One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.” “In science, we must be interested in things, not in persons.” “All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child.” “In the education of children the requirement of their growth and physical evolution should be respected, and that some time should be left for their artistic culture.” “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.” “I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy.” “Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that?

We must perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves.” “You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals.” “It is important to make a dream of life and a dream reality.” “There are sadistic scientists who hurry to hunt down errors instead of establishing the truth.” Marie Curie Marie Curie - Mini Biography (TV-PG; 3:04) Marie Curie's work on radioactivity made her the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. Curie's efforts led to the discovery of polonium and radium and the development of X-rays. Synopsis Born Maria Sklodowska on November 7, 1867, in Warsaw, Poland, Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only woman to win the award in two different fields (physics and chemistry). Curie's efforts, with her husband Pierre Curie, led to the discovery of polonium and radium and, after Pierre's death, the further development of X-rays. She died on July 4, 1934. Early Life Maria Sklodowska, better known as Marie Curie, was born in Warsaw in modern-day Poland on November 7, 1867.

Her parents were both teachers, and she was the youngest of five children, following siblings Zosia, Józef, Bronya and Hela. As a child Curie took after her father, Wladyslaw, a math and physics instructor. She had a bright and curious mind and excelled at school. But tragedy struck early, and when she was only 10, Curie lost her mother, Bronislawa, to tuberculosis. A top student in her secondary school, Curie could not attend the men-only University of Warsaw. She instead continued her education in Warsaw's "floating university," a set of underground, informal classes held in secret. Both Curie and her sister Bronya dreamed of going abroad to earn an official degree, but they lacked the financial resources to pay for more schooling. Undeterred, Curie worked out a deal with her sister. She would work to support Bronya while she was in school and Bronya would return the favor after she completed her studies. For roughly five years, Curie worked as a tutor and a governess. She used her spare time to study, reading about physics, chemistry and math.

In 1891, Curie finally made her way to Paris where she enrolled at the Sorbonne in Paris. She threw herself into her studies, but this dedication had a personal cost. With little money, Curie survived on buttered bread and tea, and her health sometimes suffered because of her poor diet. Curie completed her master's degree in physics in 1893 and earned another degree in mathematics the following year. Around this time, she received a commission to do a study on different types of steel and their magnetic properties. Curie needed a lab to work in, and a colleague introduced her to French physicist Pierre Curie . A romance developed between the brilliant pair, and they became a scientific dynamic duo. The pair married on July 26, 1895. Discoveries Marie and Pierre Curie were dedicated scientists and completely devoted to one another. At first, they worked on separate projects. She was fascinated with the work of Henri Becquerel, a French physicist who discovered that uranium casts off rays, weaker rays than the X-rays found by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen . Curie took Becquerel's work a few steps further, conducting her own experiments on uranium rays.

She discovered that the rays remained constant, no matter the condition or form of the uranium. The rays, she theorized, came from the element's atomic structure. This revolutionary idea created the field of atomic physics and Curie herself coined the word radioactivity to describe the phenomena. Marie and Pierre had a daughter, Irene, in 1897, but their work didn't slow down. Pierre put aside his own work to help Marie with her exploration of radioactivity. Working with the mineral pitchblende, the pair discovered a new radioactive element in 1898. They named the element polonium, after Marie's native country of Poland. They also detected the presence of another radioactive material in the pitchblende, and called that radium. In 1902, the Curies announced that they had produced a decigram of pure radium, demonstrating its existence as a unique chemical element. Science Celebrity Marie Curie made history in 1903 when she became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in physics. She won the prestigious honor along with her husband and Henri Becquerel, for their work on radioactivity.

With their Nobel Prize win, the Curies developed an international reputation for their scientific efforts, and they used their prize money to continue their research. They welcomed a second child, daughter Eve, the following year. In 1906, Marie suffered a tremendous loss. Her husband Pierre was killed in Paris after he accidentally stepped in front of a horse-drawn wagon. Despite her tremendous grief, she took over his teaching post at the Sorbonne, becoming the institution's first female professor. Curie received another great honor in 1911, winning her second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry. She was selected for her discovery of radium and polonium, and became the first scientist to win two Nobel Prizes. While she received the prize alone, she shared the honor jointly with her late husband in her acceptance lecture. Around this time, Curie joined with other famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Max Planck, to attend the first Solvay Congress in Physics. They gathered to discuss the many groundbreaking discoveries in their field. Curie experienced the downside of fame in 1911, when her relationship with her husband's former student, Paul Langevin, became public.

Curie was derided in the press for breaking up Langevin's marriage. The press' negativity towards Curie stemmed at least in part from rising xenophobia in France. When World War I broke out in 1914, Curie devoted her time and resources to helping the cause. She championed the use of portable X-ray machines in the field, and these medical vehicles earned the nickname "Little Curies." After the war, Curie used her celebrity to advance her research. She traveled to the United States twice— in 1921 and in 1929— to raise funds to buy radium and to establish a radium research institute in Warsaw. “The use of the X-rays during the war saved the lives of many wounded men; it also saved many from long suffering and lasting infirmity.” -- Marie Curie Final Days and Legacy All of her years of working with radioactive materials took a toll on Curie's health. She was known to carry test tubes of radium around in the pocket of her lab coat. In 1934, Curie went to the Sancellemoz Sanatorium in Passy, France, to try to rest and regain her strength.

She died there on July 4, 1934, of aplastic anemia, which can be caused by prolonged exposure to radiation. Marie Curie made many breakthroughs in her lifetime. She is the most famous female scientist of all time, and has received numerous posthumous honors. In 1995, her and her husband's remains were interred in the Panthéon in Paris, the final resting place of France's greatest minds. Curie became the first and only woman to be laid to rest there. Curie also passed down her love of science to the next generation. Her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie followed in her mother's footsteps, winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935. Joliot-Curie shared the honor with her husband Frédéric Joliot for their work on their synthesis of new radioactive elements. Today several educational and research institutions and medical centers bear the Curie name, including the Institute Curie and the Pierre and Marie Curie University, both in Paris. Videos Marie Curie Marie Curie From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about the Polish physicist. For other uses, see Marie Curie (disambiguation) .

Marie Skłodowska Curie Cause of death Aplastic anemia Citizenship Spouse(s) Pierre Curie (1859–1906) m. 1895 Children Notes She is the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences. Marie Skłodowska Curie ( /ˈkjʊri, kjʊˈriː/ ; French: [kyʁi] ; Polish: [kʲiˈri] ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934), born Maria Salomea Skłodowska [ˈmarja salɔˈmɛa skwɔˈdɔfska] , was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity . She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize , the first person and only woman to win twice , the only person to win twice in multiple sciences, and was part of the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes .

She was also the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris , and in 1995 became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris. She was born in Warsaw , in what was then the Kingdom of Poland , part of the Russian Empire . She studied at Warsaw's clandestine Floating University and began her practical scientific training in Warsaw. In 1891, aged 24, she followed her older sister Bronisława to study in Paris, where she earned her higher degrees and conducted her subsequent scientific work. She shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband Pierre Curie and with physicist Henri Becquerel . She won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry . Her achievements included the development of the theory of radioactivity (a term that she coined), techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes , and the discovery of two elements, polonium and radium . Under her direction, the world's first studies were conducted into the treatment of neoplasms , using radioactive isotopes. She founded the Curie Institutes in Paris and in Warsaw , which remain major centres of medical research today.

During World War I , she established the first military field radiological centres. While a French citizen, Marie Skłodowska Curie (she used both surnames) never lost her sense of Polish identity . She taught her daughters the Polish language and took them on visits to Poland. She named the first chemical element that she discovered‍—‌polonium, which she isolated in 1898‍—‌after her native country. Curie died in 1934, aged 66, at a sanatorium in Sancellemoz ( Haute-Savoie ), France, due to aplastic anemia brought on by exposure to radiation while carrying test tubes of radium in her pockets during research, and in the course of her service in World War I mobile X-ray units that she had set up. Biography At a Warsaw laboratory, in 1890–91, Maria Skłodowska did her first scientific work Maria made an agreement with her sister, Bronisława, that she would give her financial assistance during Bronisława's medical studies in Paris, in exchange for similar assistance two years later.

In connection with this, Maria took a position as governess : first as a home tutor in Warsaw; then for two years as a governess in Szczuki with a landed family, the Żorawskis, who were relatives of her father. While working for the latter family, she fell in love with their son, Kazimierz Żorawski , a future eminent mathematician. His parents rejected the idea of his marrying the penniless relative, and Kazimierz was unable to oppose them. Maria's loss of the relationship with Żorawski was tragic for both. He soon earned a doctorate and pursued an academic career as a mathematician, becoming a professor and rector of Kraków University . Still, as an old man and a mathematics professor at the Warsaw Polytechnic , he would sit contemplatively before the statue of Maria Skłodowska which had been erected in 1935 before the Radium Institute that she had founded in 1932. At the beginning of 1890, Bronisława — who a few months earlier had married Kazimierz Dłuski , a Polish physician and social and political activist — invited Maria to join them in Paris.

Maria declined because she could not afford the university tuition; it would take her a year and a half longer to gather the necessary funds. She was helped by her father, who was able to secure a more lucrative position again. All that time she continued to educate herself , reading books, exchanging letters, and being tutored herself. In early 1889 she returned home to her father in Warsaw. She continued working as a governess, and remained there till late 1891. She tutored, studied at the Flying University, and began her practical scientific training (1890–91) in a chemical laboratory at the Museum of Industry and Agriculture at Krakowskie Przedmieście 66, near Warsaw's Old Town . The laboratory was run by her cousin Józef Boguski , who had been an assistant in Saint Petersburg to the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev . New life in Paris In late 1891, she left Poland for France.

In Paris, Maria (or Marie, as she would be known in France) briefly found shelter with her sister and brother-in-law before renting a garret closer to the university, in the Latin Quarter , and proceeding with her studies of physics, chemistry, and mathematics at the University of Paris , where she enrolled in late 1891. She subsisted on her meager resources, suffering from cold winters and occasionally fainting from hunger. Skłodowska studied during the day and tutored evenings, barely earning her keep. In 1893, she was awarded a degree in physics and began work in an industrial laboratory of Professor Gabriel Lippmann . Meanwhile, she continued studying at the University of Paris, and with the aid of a fellowship she was able to earn a second degree in 1894. Marie had begun her scientific career in Paris with an investigation of the magnetic properties of various steels, commissioned by The Society for the Encouragement of National Industry (Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale [1] ). That same year Pierre Curie entered her life; it was their mutual interest in natural sciences that drew them together.

Pierre was an instructor at the School of Physics and Chemistry, the École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris (ESPCI). They were introduced by the Polish physicist, Professor Józef Kowalski-Wierusz , who had learned that Marie was looking for a larger laboratory space, something that Kowalski-Wierusz thought Pierre had access to. Though Pierre did not have a large laboratory, he was able to find some space for Marie where she was able to begin work. Their mutual passion for science brought them increasingly closer, and they began to develop feelings for one another. Eventually Pierre proposed marriage, but at first Marie did not accept as she was still planning to go back to her native country. Pierre, however, declared that he was ready to move with her to Poland, even if it meant being reduced to teaching French. Meanwhile, for the 1894 summer break, Marie returned to Warsaw, where she visited her family. She was still laboring under the illusion that she would be able to work in her chosen field in Poland, but she was denied a place at Kraków University because she was a woman .

A letter from Pierre convinced her to return to Paris to pursue a Ph.D . At Marie's insistence, Pierre had written up his research on magnetism and received his own doctorate in March 1895; he was also promoted to professor at the School. A contemporary quip would call Marie, "Pierre's biggest discovery." On 26 July 1895 they were married in Sceaux ( Seine ); neither wanted a religious service. Marie's dark blue outfit, worn instead of a bridal gown, would serve her for many years as a laboratory outfit. They shared two pastimes: long bicycle trips, and journeys abroad, which brought them even closer. In Pierre, Marie had found a new love, a partner, and a scientific collaborator on whom she could depend. New elements 1911 Nobel Prize diploma International recognition for her work had been growing to new heights, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, overcoming opposition prompted by the Langevin scandal, honored her a second time, with the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry .

This award was "in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element." She was the first person to win or share two Nobel Prizes, and remains alone with Linus Pauling as Nobel laureates in two fields each . A delegation of celebrated Polish men of learning, headed by novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz , encouraged her to return to Poland and continue her research in her native country. Curie's second Nobel Prize enabled her to persuade the French government into supporting the Radium Institute, built in 1914, where research was conducted in chemistry, physics, and medicine. A month after accepting her 1911 Nobel Prize, she was hospitalised with depression and a kidney ailment. For most of 1912 she avoided public life but did spend time in England with her friend and fellow physicist, Hertha Ayrton . She returned to her laboratory only in December, after a break of about 14 months.

In 1912 the Warsaw Scientific Society offered her the directorship of a new laboratory in Warsaw but she declined, focusing on the developing Radium Institute to be completed in August 1914, and on a new street named Rue Pierre-Curie. She visited Poland in 1913 and was welcomed in Warsaw but the visit was mostly ignored by the Russian authorities. The Institute's development was interrupted by the coming war, as most researchers were drafted into the French Army , and it fully resumed its activities in 1919. World War I Curie in a mobile X-ray vehicle During World War I, Curie saw a need for field radiological centres near the front lines to assist battlefield surgeons. After a quick study of radiology, anatomy, and automotive mechanics she procured X-ray equipment, vehicles, auxiliary generators, and developed mobile radiography units, which came to be popularly known as petites Curies ("Little Curies").

She became the director of the Red Cross Radiology Service and set up France's first military radiology centre, operational by late 1914.Assisted at first by a military doctor and by her 17-year-old daughter Irène , Curie directed the installation of 20 mobile radiological vehicles and another 200 radiological units at field hospitals in the first year of the war. Later, she began training other women as aides. In 1915 Curie produced hollow needles containing 'radium emanation', a colorless, radioactive gas given off by radium, later identified as radon , to be used for sterilizing infected tissue. She provided the radium from her own one-gram supply. It is estimated that over a million wounded soldiers were treated with her X-ray units. Busy with this work, she carried out very little scientific research during that period. In spite of all her humanitarian contributions to the French war effort, Curie never received any formal recognition of it from the French government. Also, promptly after the war started, she attempted to donate her gold Nobel Prize medals to the war effort but the French National Bank refused to accept them. She did buy war bonds , using her Nobel Prize money.

She was also an active member in committees of Polonia in France dedicated to the Polish cause. After the war, she summarized her war time experiences in a book Radiology in War (1919). Postwar years In 1920, for the 25th anniversary of the discovery of radium, the French government established a stipend for her; its previous recipient was Louis Pasteur (1822–95). In 1921, Marie was welcomed triumphantly when she toured the United States to raise funds for research on radium. Mrs. William Brown Meloney , after interviewing Marie, created a Marie Curie Radium Fund and raised money to buy radium, publicising her trip. In 1921, US President Warren G. Harding received her at the White House to present her with the 1 gram of radium collected in the United States. Before the meeting, recognising her growing fame abroad, and embarrassed by the fact that she had no French official distinctions to wear in public, the French government offered her a Legion of Honour award, but she refused. In 1922 she became a fellow of the French Academy of Medicine .

She also travelled to other countries, appearing publicly and giving lectures in Belgium, Brazil, Spain, and Czechoslovakia. Led by Curie, the Institute produced four more Nobel Prize winners, including her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie and her son-in-law, Frédéric Joliot-Curie . Eventually, it became one of four major radioactivity research laboratories, the others being the Cavendish Laboratory , with Ernest Rutherford ; the Institute for Radium Research, Vienna , with Stefan Meyer ; and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry , with Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner . In August 1922, Marie Curie became a member of the newly created International Commission for Intellectual Cooperation of the League of Nations . In 1923, she wrote a biography of Pierre, entitled Pierre Curie. In 1925, she visited Poland, to participate in the ceremony that laid foundations for the Radium Institute in Warsaw. Her second American tour, in 1929, succeeded in equipping the Warsaw Radium Institute with radium; it was opened in 1932 and her sister Bronisława became its director.

These distractions from her scientific labours and the attendant publicity caused her much discomfort but provided resources needed for her work. In 1930, she was elected a member of the International Atomic Weights Committee where she served until her death. Death 1935 statue, facing the Radium Institute, Warsaw Curie visited Poland for the last time in early 1934. A few months later, on 4 July 1934, she died at the Sancellemoz Sanatorium in Passy , in Haute-Savoie , from aplastic anemia believed to have been contracted from her long-term exposure to radiation. The damaging effects of ionising radiation were not known at the time of her work, which had been carried out without the safety measures later developed. She had carried test tubes containing radioactive isotopes in her pocket, and she stored them in her desk drawer, remarking on the faint light that the substances gave off in the dark. Curie was also exposed to X-rays from unshielded equipment while serving as a radiologist in field hospitals during the war.

Although her many decades of exposure to radiation caused chronic illnesses (including near blindness due to cataracts ) and ultimately her death, she never really acknowledged the health risks of radiation exposure. She was interred at the cemetery in Sceaux , alongside her husband Pierre. Sixty years later, in 1995, in honour of their achievements, the remains of both were transferred to the Panthéon, Paris . She became the first woman to be honoured with interment in the Panthéon on her own merits. In 2015, two other women were also interred on their own merits. Because of their levels of radioactive contamination, her papers from the 1890s are considered too dangerous to handle. Even her cookbook is highly radioactive. Her papers are kept in lead-lined boxes, and those who wish to consult them must wear protective clothing. In her last year, she worked on a book, Radioactivity, which was published posthumously in 1935. Legacy Statue, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University , Lublin , Poland The physical and societal aspects of the Curies' work contributed substantially to shaping the world of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Cornell University professor L.

Pearce Williams observes: The result of the Curies' work was epoch-making. Radium's radioactivity was so great that it could not be ignored. It seemed to contradict the principle of the conservation of energy and therefore forced a reconsideration of the foundations of physics. On the experimental level the discovery of radium provided men like Ernest Rutherford with sources of radioactivity with which they could probe the structure of the atom. As a result of Rutherford's experiments with alpha radiation, the nuclear atom was first postulated. In medicine, the radioactivity of radium appeared to offer a means by which cancer could be successfully attacked. If Curie's work helped overturn established ideas in physics and chemistry, it has had an equally profound effect in the societal sphere. To attain her scientific achievements, she had to overcome barriers that were placed in her way because she was a woman, in both her native and her adoptive country. This aspect of her life and career is highlighted in Françoise Giroud 's Marie Curie: A Life, which emphasizes Marie's role as a feminist precursor. She was known for her honesty and moderate life style.

Having received a small scholarship in 1893, she returned it in 1897 as soon as she began earning her keep. She gave much of her first Nobel Prize money to friends, family, students, and research associates. In an unusual decision, Curie intentionally refrained from patenting the radium-isolation process, so that the scientific community could do research unhindered. She insisted that monetary gifts and awards be given to the scientific institutions she was affiliated with rather than to her. She and her husband often refused awards and medals. Albert Einstein reportedly remarked that she was probably the only person who could not be corrupted by fame. Awards, honours, and tributes 2011 birthplace mural , on centenary of second Nobel Prize Several institutions bear her name, starting with the two Curie institutes – the Maria Skłodowska–Curie Institute of Oncology , in Warsaw; and the Institut Curie in Paris. She is the patron of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University , in Lublin , founded in 1944; and of Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris VI), France's pre-eminent science university.

In Britain, Marie Curie Cancer Care was organized in 1948 to care for the terminally ill. Two museums are devoted to Marie Curie. In 1967, the Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum was established in Warsaw's " New Town ", at her birthplace on ulica Freta (Freta Street). Her Paris laboratory is preserved as the Musée Curie , open since 1997. Several works of art bear her likeness. In 1935, Michalina Mościcka, wife of Polish President Ignacy Mościcki , unveiled a statue of Marie Curie before Warsaw's Radium Institute. During the 1944 Second World War Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi German occupation, the monument was damaged by gunfire; after the war it was decided to leave the bullet marks on the statue and its pedestal. In 1955 Jozef Mazur created a stained glass panel of her, the Maria Skłodowska-Curie Medallion , featured in the University at Buffalo Polish Room. A number of biographies are devoted to her.

In 1938 her daughter, Ève Curie , published Madame Curie. In 1987 Françoise Giroud wrote Marie Curie: A Life. In 2005 Barbara Goldsmith wrote Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie. In 2011 Lauren Redniss published Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, a Tale of Love and Fallout . Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon starred in the 1943 U.S. Oscar-nominated film, Madame Curie , based on her life. More recently, in 1997, a French film about Pierre and Marie Curie was released, Les Palmes de M. Schutz . It was adapted from a play of the same name. In the film, Marie Curie was played by Isabelle Huppert . Curie is the subject of the play False Assumptions by Lawrence Aronovitch , in which the ghosts of three other female scientists observe events in her life.

[97] Curie has also been portrayed by Susan Marie Frontczak in her play Manya: The Living History of Marie Curie, a one-woman show performed in 30 US states and nine countries, by 2014. Curie's likeness also has appeared on bills, stamps and coins around the world. She was featured on the Polish late-1980s 20,000- złoty banknote as well as on the last French 500- franc note, before the franc was replaced by the euro. Interestingly, Marie Curie themed postage stamps from Mali , the Republic of Togo , Zambia , and the Republic of Guinea actually show a picture of Susan Marie Frontczak portraying Curie in a 2001 picture by Paul Schroeder. On the 2011 centenary of Marie Curie's second Nobel Prize (1911), an allegorical mural was painted on the façade of her Warsaw birthplace . It depicts an infant Maria Skłodowska holding a test tube from which emanate the elements that she would discover as an adult: polonium and radium .

Also in 2011, a new Warsaw bridge over the Vistula was named after her. Notes a. ^ Poland had been partitioned in the 18th century among Russia, Prussia and Austria, and it was Maria Skłodowska Curie's hope that naming the element after her native country would bring world attention to Poland's lack of independence as a sovereign state. Polonium may have been the first chemical element named to highlight a political question. b. ^ Sources vary concerning the field of her second degree. Tadeusz Estreicher , in the 1938 Polski słownik biograficzny entry, writes that, while many sources state she earned a degree in mathematics, this is incorrect, and that her second degree was in chemistry. Author MrHeaneysClass - Marie Curie Marie Curie Marie Curie:The Secrets Within Marie Curie "Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseveranceand above all confidence in ourselves.

We must believe that we aregifted for something and that this thing must be attained." -Marie Curie EARLY LIFE Marie Curie's birthplace-now Marie Sklodowska-Curie Museum ﻿Marie Sklo﻿dowska Curie was born on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland. She was the fifth child of Bronislawa and Wladyslaw Sklodowski. Marie was fortunate enough to be born into a family that valued education. Her mother was a secondary school teacher, so, she was able to receive an education from the local schools. Unfortunately, in Poland, women would only receive a fairly basic knowledge from the local schools. However, she was able to obtain scientific training from her father, who taught mathematics and physics. At the age of sixteen, she finished her education at secondary school, ranking first in her class. Marie loved to learn and dreamed of studying at Sorbonne in Paris. Her family, sadly, did not have the financial means to send her to Paris because her father had made several poor investments with their savings. As a result, she and her sister, Bronia, took jobs as governesses so they could have a chance to obtain a university education.

Marie, Pierre and Irene Curie Bronia was the first to leave for Paris with the financial help of her sister, Marie. Bronia promised in return, when she had finished her education, she would help Marie finance her own. In 1891, Marie finally had the chance to study in Paris. She planned to move in with her sister, Bronia, but the residence was too far away from the school. She, therefore, had to rent a tiny attic in Quartier Latin in order to be closer to the school. Marie, immediately, threw herself into her studies. She wrote, "It was like a new world opened to me, the world of science, which I was at last permitted to know in all liberty". In 1893, she completed her degree in physics and in 1894 she completed her degree in mathematics. The same year, she met Pierre Curie, a Professor in the school of Physics, and in 1895 they were married. Together they had two children, Irene, in 1897, and Eve, in 1904. Marie discovered it was extremely hard to balance her family life with her scientific career.

However, she was able to manage both. Irene achieved a Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Eve wrote a very successful biography on her mother. HER STUDIES Marie was actually working on an investigation for the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry, researching the magnetic properties of different steels before she was intrigued by radioactivity. Over two years, she completed her research and submitted her results. She began to look for a new topic, one, she hoped, would secure her a doctorate in science. Thus, she began her study of radioactive materials. This study did eventually secure her a doctorate, with her thesis on "Research and Radioactive Substances". This degree made Marie Curie the first woman ever in Europe to receive a doctoral degree. Her studies on radioactive material were vast and extensive. She spent many years working with radioactive substances before being awarded her degree. Even then, Marie spent the rest of her life examining and experimenting with radioactive materials. Roentgen's Early X-ray Photograph Marie Curie was a physicist and chemist who had key involvement in radioactivity. She was fascinated by the recent discoveries in radiation.

In 1895, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen had discovered X-rays and, in 1896, Henri Becquerel had discovered uranium. Although the scientific community ignored Becquerel’s fascinating find because the uranium rays were much weaker, it was actually the discovery of radioactivity. These two discoveries inspired the research of Marie and Pierre Curie. The rays discovered by Henri Becquerel captivated Marie. She began experimental work in a cramped store room she had to use as a lab. A few years earlier, Pierre Device invented by Pierre and Jacques and his brother Jacques had invented a device that was able to measure very low electrical currents. This device was very useful to Marie when it came to measure the electrical effects of uranium. Marie was able to confirm Becquerel’s findings that uranium rays were constant. With the help of her research, she hypothesized: “The emission of rays by uranium compounds could be an atomic property of the element uranium--something built into the very structure of an atom”. Marie’s discovery changed the fundamental knowledge of society. Scientists believed that the atom was the smallest, however, Marie's conjecture proved to be correct.

The atom was not indivisible, inside it contained energy (electrons, discovered in 1897 by J. J. Thompson ). In 1898, the Curie’s discovered polonium (named after Marie’s home country, Poland) and radium (named for its radioactivity). Pierre had put aside his own research on crystals to help Marie in her work. Their discovery of polonium was due to an experiment on uranium pitchblende ore. This substance, they discovered, was far more radioactive than uranium. They then concluded it must contain another, undiscovered, radioactive element. Pitchblende can contain up to 30 different elements so they had to perform various procedures in order to separate the elements. What they discovered was two new elements that were highly radioactive. However, other scientists did not have confidence in the discovery because the new radioactive substances were still mixed with other substances. So, the Curie's left the confined lab for an abandoned shed nearby to continue their research in a larger area and prove their discovery. It took over three years for Marie to get a one tenth of a gram sample of radium chloride. This fact was due to radioactive decay . Radium was a fascinating new discovery.

As Pierre worked with the radium, he discovered that it could damage human tissue. This scientific breakthrough was used to help fight against certain cancers and other diseases. Marie Curie was the first person ever to experiment with the treatment of cancers using radioactivity. In our life time, radiation is still being used to fight certain cancers. There have been ever more breakthroughs with the treatment of cancers due to Marie Curie's discovery and research. Marie Curie's discovery of radium and how radiation can be helpful in curing cancer has helped, and will continue to help, save many lives. However, in 1906, Marie Curie's husband Pierre had begun to feel the effects of radium and became ill. Fate had other plans for him and, ironically, on April 19, 1906, he was struck by a vehicle and killed. “One of our joys was to go into our workroom at night....The glowing tubes looked like faint fairy lights." -Marie Curie Marie and Pierre Curie Mobile X-Ray Unit THE WAR In 1914, Germany invaded France.

The Radium Institute building had been completed by this time but because of the war Marie was not yet able to continue her research in her new laboratory. Therefore, Marie, along with the soon-to-be members of the new Institute all went out to aid in the war efforts. Marie believed that the discovery of X-rays would be extremely helpful during the war. She begged people to help her out with her idea and, in the end, she had 20 radiology vehicles to send out to the battle front. The purpose of these mobile radiography vehicles was to aid wounded soldiers. These vehicles were able to use the X-rays to find the bullets inside the injured soldiers. These vehicles became known as petites Curies or "little Curie's". Marie had used tubes of radium (radon) to power these vehicles. Her daughter, Irene, was her assistant and used her own scientific knowledge to aid her mother with the vehicles. RADIUM INSTITUTE In 1919, she established an organization called the Radium Institute in Warsaw with the help of scientists, the French Government and the private Pasteur Foundation.

On a visit to the United States of America, she was given a gram of radium from President Harding, a gift from the Women of America. This tiny bit of radium could be used for thousands of experiments. As well, with this radium the Institute was able to purchase expensive equipment and further fund their research. Eventually, this Institute became the centre for the study of radioactivity in the world. In 1921, the American President, Herbert Hoover purchased radium with $50 000 donated by American Friends of Science. This radium was for use in Marie's laboratory to further her research. Before her death, the Institute had published 483 papers about radiation. Marie Curie, herself had written 31 of the research papers, an incredible contribution to the field. She spent most of her life at the Institute trying to consolidate her research by attempting to isolate polonium. However, she was never able to fully isolate polonium because the substance only has a half life of 138 days. Marie Curie Statue outside the Radium Institute AWARDS AND DISTINCTIONS Marie Curie's Nobel Prize for Chemistry Marie was honoured with two Nobel Prizes.

She was the first woman to ever to receive a Nobel Prize and also the only person to ever receive two. In 1903, Marie shared a Nobel Prize along with her husband, Pierre, and Henri Becquerel in physics for their discovery of radioactivity. In 1911, Marie was, again, honoured with a Nobel Prize this time in Chemistry. She received this award for isolating pure radium. In 1935, Irene Joliot-Curie won a Nobel Prize for Chemistry. This made Marie and Irene the first ever mother and daughter to win Nobel Prizes. Marie was the recipient of many other awards. She received many honourary science, medicine and law degrees. In 1903, she and her husband shared the Davy Medal of the Royal Society. She was also offered membership into many societies that were well known, like Conseil du Physique Solvay and the French Academy of Medicine. In her lifetime, she received 15 gold medals and 19 degrees. DEATH Marie Sklodowska Curie was an amazing woman. Marie made a strong impact on society.She changed the face of science and, also, changed the way society viewed women.

She studied radioactivity. She discovered two new elements, radium and polonium. She was the first woman who received a Nobel Prize and the first person ever to receive two. She was the first female professor at a University in Paris. With her guidance, the first studies for treating cancers using radiation began. The scientific community found it hard to accept a woman. In order for her to acheive success, she had to overcome many obstacles and work harder than any man because the scientific community could not accept the fact that she was a woman scientist. She was an extraordinary woman whose discoveries where remarkable breakthroughs in science and the study of radioactivity. Marie died on July 4, 1935 from pernicious anemia. This was most likely caused by her overexposure to radioactive materials and improper safeguarding when handling them. After her death, the Radium Institute was renamed the Curie Institute. Her cremated ashes can be found in the Pantheon of Paris where she was moved in honour of her discoveries. Marie Curie's Grave in the Pantheon in Paris "I am among those who think that science has great beauty.

A scientist in his laboratory is not only a technician: he is also a child placed before natural phenomena which impress him like a fairy tale." -Marie Curie Marie Curie; Physicist - The Marie Curie School for Medicine, Nursing and Health Professions Marie Curie; Physicist 12days until Spring Semester Begins Para asistencia en Español por favor póngase en contacto con la Sra. Agosto (coordinadora de los padres). (718) 432-6491 Marie Curie; Physicist Synopsis Born Maria Sklodowska on November 7, 1867, in Warsaw, Poland, Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only woman to win the award in two different fields (physics and chemistry). Curie's efforts, with her husband Pierre Curie, led to the discovery of polonium and radium and, after Pierre's death, the development of X-rays. She died on July 4, 1934. Early Life Maria Sklodowska, better known as Marie Curie, was born in Warsaw in modern-day Poland on November 7, 1867.

Her parents were both teachers, and she was the youngest of five children. As a child Curie took after her father, Ladislas, a math and physics instructor. She had a bright and curious mind and excelled at school. But tragedy struck early, and when she was only 11, Curie lost her mother, Bronsitwa, to tuberculosis. A top student in her secondary school, Curie could not attend the men-only University of Warsaw. She instead continued her education in Warsaw's "floating university," a set of underground, informal classes held in secret. Both Curie and her sister Bronya dreamed of going abroad to earn an official degree, but they lacked the financial resources to pay for more schooling. Undeterred, Curie worked out a deal with her sister. She would work to support Bronya while she was in school and Bronya would return the favor after she completed her studies. For roughly five years, Curie worked as a tutor and a governess. She used her spare time to study, reading about physics, chemistry and math. In 1891, Curie finally made her way to Paris where she enrolled at the Sorbonne in Paris.

She threw herself into her studies, but this dedication had a personal cost. With little money, Curie survived on buttered bread and tea, and her health sometimes suffered because of her poor diet. Curie completed her master's degree in physics in 1893 and earned another degree in mathematics the following year. Around this time, she received a commission to do a study on different types of steel and their magnetic properties. Curie needed a lab to work in, and a colleague introduced her to French physicist Pierre Curie. A romance developed between the brilliant pair, and they became a scientific dynamic duo. Discoveries Marie and Pierre Curie were dedicated scientists and completely devoted to one another. At first, they worked on separate projects. She was fascinated with the work of Henri Becquerel, a French physicist who discovered that uranium casts off rays, weaker rays than the X-rays found by Wilhelm Roentgen. Curie took Becquerel's work a few steps further, conducting her own experiments on uranium rays. She discovered that the rays remained constant, no matter the condition or form of the uranium. The rays, she theorized, came from the element's atomic structure.

This revolutionary idea created the field of atomic physics and Curie herself coined the wordradioactivity to describe the phenomena. Marie and Pierre had a daughter, Irene, in 1897, but their work didn't slow down. Pierre put aside his own work to help Marie with her exploration of radioactivity. Working with the mineral pitchblende, the pair discovered a new radioactive element in 1898. They named the element polonium, after Marie's native country of Poland. They also detected the presence of another radioactive material in the pitchblende, and called that radium. In 1902, the Curies announced that they had produced a decigram of pure radium, demonstrating its existence as a unique chemical element. Science Celebrity Marie Curie made history in 1903 when she became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in physics. She won the prestigious honor along with her husband and Henri Becquerel, for their work on radioactivity. With their Nobel Prize win, the Curies developed an international reputation for their scientific efforts, and they used their prize money to continue their research. They welcomed a second child, daughter Eve, the following year.

In 1906, Marie suffered a tremendous loss. Her husband Pierre was killed in Paris after he accidentally stepped in front of a horse-drawn wagon. Despite her tremendous grief, she took over his teaching post at the Sorbonne, becoming the institution's first female professor. Curie received another great honor in 1911, winning her second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry. She was selected for her discovery of radium and polonium, and became the first scientist to win two Nobel Prizes. While she received the prize alone, she shared the honor jointly with her late husband in her acceptance lecture. Around this time, Curie joined with other famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Max Planck, to attend the first Solvay Congress in Physics. They gathered to discuss the many groundbreaking discoveries in their field. Curie experienced the downside of fame in 1911, when her relationship with her husband's former student, Paul Langevin, became public. Curie was derided in the press for breaking up Langevin's marriage. The press' negativity towards Curie stemmed at least in part from rising xenophobia in France.

When World War I broke out in 1914, Curie devoted her time and resources to helping the cause. She championed the use of portable X-ray machines in the field, and these medical vehicles earned the nickname "Little Curies." After the war, Curie used her celebrity to advance her research. She traveled to the United States twice— in 1921 and in 1929— to raise funds to buy radium and to establish a radium research institute in Warsaw. Final Days and Legacy All of her years of working with radioactive materials took a toll on Curie's health. She was known to carry test tubes of radium around in the pocket of her lab coat. In 1934, Curie went to the Sancellemoz Sanatorium in Passy, France, to try to rest and regain her strength. She died there on July 4, 1934, of aplastic anemia, which can be caused by prolonged exposure to radiation. Marie Curie made many breakthroughs in her lifetime. She is the most famous female scientist of all time, and has received numerous posthumous honors.

In 1995, her and her husband's remains were interred in the Panthéon in Paris, the final resting place of France's greatest minds. Curie became the first and only woman to be laid to rest there. Curie also passed down her love of science to the next generation. Her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie followed in her mother's footsteps, winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935. Joliot-Curie shared the honor with her husband Frédéric Joliot for their work on their synthesis of new radioactive elements. Today several educational and research institutions and medical centers bear the Curie name, including the Institute Curie and the Pierre and Marie Curie University, both in Paris. Additionally, the Marie Curie High School for Medicine, Nursing, and Health Professions is named in her honor. Marie Curie Marie Curie Nationality: France [1] Executive summary: Early nuclear chemist Madame Marie Curie is a scientific icon remembered for her pioneering work in the field of radiation research. She discovered Radium and Polonium, defining their atomic weight and their place in the periodic system, and she was the first to discover methods for extracting pure Radium salts and metal.

Marie Curie, who first coined the term "radioactivity", was key in developing methods for quantitatively measuring radioactivity and for discovering its effect on living cells. Curie was twice awarded the Nobel Prize, first in 1903 in Physics and then again in 1911 in the field of Chemistry. She was the first person ever to be awarded two Nobel Prizes, and along with Linus Pauling , is one of only two to have done so in two separate fields. In addition, Curie was the first woman in history to earn a Ph.D. at a French university. She is in general remembered for her scientific brilliance and for her diligence and perseverance in the face of tremendous discrimination and hardship. Marie Curie was born Maria Sklodowska on 7 November 1867 in Warsaw, in what was then the Russian Empire, with Poland having been divided up amongst various European nations due to war and subsequent treaties. When she was only 10 years old her mother died of tuberculosis, a short time after her elder sister had died of typhus. Despite this setback, Marie struggled on with her studies, graduating high school at age 15 with impressive marks.

Soon after graduation however, she succumbed to depression and had to take a year off, staying with relatives in the countryside. She subsequently returned to Warsaw, and to her educational ambitions, determined to circumvent Russian-imposed laws which prohibited women from attending university and forbade Poles from teaching laboratory science. In consequence, anyone willing to impart knowledge or share laboratory space, even for a little while, became one of her teachers. But she knew she would need a formal degree to advance in any scientific profession. Thus Marie and sister Bronya formed a pact, agreeing to take turns working to raise money while the other traveled west, outside the Czar's reach, to attend university. Through this means Bronya was able to complete her medical degree, and by the time Marie was twenty-four, after several years of working as a governess, Marie was able to move to Paris and enroll at the prestigious Sorbonne. There she found herself woefully behind the other students, but she studied hard in chemistry, math, and physics and within three years time she had earned her Masters degree. It was while she was in Paris that she met and shared lab space with one Pierre Curie , her future husband and collaborator.

Ten years her elder, Pierre was Lab Chief for the Paris Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry, and he had a background in magnetism and crystals. Marie was doing post-graduate research on the magnetic properties of various types of steel, a project financed by an industrial company. The two not only encouraged each other's work beneficially, but fell in love. They married in July 1885. Their daughter Ir�ne was born a couple years later. Marie Curie had no intention of settling down to a traditional life of wife and mother however. Instead she set out to earn her doctorate -� a thing utterly unheard of in France at that time. Pierre's father moved in to help with Ir�ne, and Marie found her imagination fired by the field of radiation research, only just then discovered by Henri Becquerel and Wilhelm Conrad R�ntgen . Because so much attention was already on R�ntgen's X-rays, she turned her attention to Uranium radiation reported by Becquerel, of which almost nothing was known at the time.

Working in the lab she shared with Pierre, she soon discovered that the level of radiation emitted depended only on the quantity of the Uranium contained in a compound, and not on the types of other elements that the compound contained. This meant that the "radioactivity", as she dubbed it, was not the result of a reaction between elements, but was instead the result of something going on within the Uranium atoms themselves. At the same time that Marie was discovering additional radioactive properties�and elements. She found that like Uranium, Thorium also emitted radiation. And as she and Pierre began working together, isolating radioactive elements from a Uranium ore compound called "pitchblende", they managed to uncover two entirely new elements, each highly radioactive. These they named "Radium" and "Polonium", the latter in honor of Marie's native Poland. Their groundbreaking work on the elements and their properties, and their research into potential applications, brought them much needed funding from industry and earned them the Nobel Prize for physics. In addition, Marie earned her doctorate degree, becoming the first woman in France to achieve that distinction.

But on 19 April 1906, tragedy struck: Pierre slipped and fell in the street, and his head was crushed under the wheels of a heavy wagon, killing him instantly. Somehow, despite the blow, Marie managed to persevere, bringing her attention back to her research and to the constant effort to find funding. Then, in a surprise move, the Sorbonne offered her Pierre's former post in the Physics department, making Marie their first female professor. Respect for her work continued to grow, especially her work developing methods for Radium extraction, and in 1911 she was awarded her second Nobel Prize, this time entirely on her own right. Unfortunately, in this same period Curie was also embroiled in an ugly scandal over an alleged affair with an estranged married colleague, Paul Langevin . Curie's fame, coupled with a rabid streak of xenophobic sentiment in the right wing faction of the media, caused the incident to inflate to huge proportions. She was vilified in the press, and although she was an agnostic Catholic, Curie was branded a Jewess and further derogated for the racially derived flaws then ascribed to Jews in general.

Although the incident took its toll on the already public-shy Marie, she did not flinch from her work nor from her efforts to fundraise and further the vision she shared with late husband Pierre: to map and apply the medical applications of radiation. With the generous help of the Pasteur Foundation and other benefactors she finally founded The Radium Institute. Staffed with a growing retinue of researchers, the Institute was able to follow up on a variety of research areas, increasing the pace of discovery many times over what she could have accomplished on her own. Meanwhile, as World War I erupted, Marie Curie saw the opportunity to use medical radiation to treat injuries from the battlefront. Using tubes of a radioactive gas (now called radon) derived from Radium, Marie set up 200 stationary, and 20 mobile, X-ray stations to help doctors identify and treat bullet and shrapnel wounds as well as broken bones and other ailments. Radon tubes were even used by doctors to destroy a patient's diseased tissue, a foreshadowing of today's cancer treatments. Meanwhile, Marie trained her eldest daughter Ir�ne as an assistant, and she convinced wealthy people to donate vehicles for the mobile stations.

She even sold off the gold medals awarded to herself and to Pierre by the Nobel Prize committee to fund the war effort. After the war she continued her fundraising for the Radium Institute, even traveling to the U.S. in 1921. There, in addition to donations and publicity, she received a gift of one gram of Radium �- a gift that effectively doubled her research supply of the costly substance. By 1934, Curie's health was failing rapidly. The toll of heavy exposure to radiation was at last overpowering her impressive constitution. She did live to see Ir�ne and son-in-law Fr�d�ric Joliot-Curie discover artificial radiation, but not long enough to see them win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for this achievement. On 4 July 1934 she succumbed to aplastic anemia, or leukemia, induced by radiation exposure. She was buried alongside husband Pierre, and in 1995 the pair were exhumed and reburied at the Panth�on in Paris, an honor accorded only to France's most esteemed citizens.

Other honors accorded Curie, in addition to her two Nobel Prizes, include numerous honorary degrees, an assortment of biographies (including Madame Curie written by her younger daughter Eve), and her portrayal in a 1943 film. Starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon , the film received an Oscar nomination. Curie's likeness also appears on a variety of coins and other currency as well as on a number of stamps. An asteroid, 7000 Curie, bears her name. And Curium, the 96th element in the periodic table, is named in honor of both Marie and Pierre Curie. In addition she has been the inspiration for innumerable young scientists, and was of great influence on her peers including Albert Einstein . Marie Curie Biography -Biography Online About Marie Curie Biography Marie Curie was a Polish scientist who won a Nobel prize in both Chemistry and Physics. She was the first female professor of the University of Paris, and made ground-breaking work in the field of Radioactivity. “Humanity needs practical men, who get the most out of their work, and, without forgetting the general good, safeguard their own interests.

But humanity also needs dreamers, for whom the disinterested development of an enterprise is so captivating that it becomes impossible for them to devote their care to their own material profit.” – Marie Curie Short Bio Marie Curie Marya Sklodovska was the youngest of 5 children, born in 1867, Warsaw Poland. She was brought up in a poor but well educated family. Marya excelled in her studies and won many prizes. At an early age she became committed to the ideal of Polish independence from Russia which was currently ruling Poland with an iron fist, and in particular making life difficult for intellectuals. She yearned to be able to teach fellow Polish woman who were mostly condemned to zero education. Unusually for women at that time, Marya took an interest in Chemistry and Biology. Since opportunities in Poland for further study was limited, Marya went to Paris, where after working as a governess she was able to study at the Sorbonne, Paris. Struggling to learn in French, Marya threw herself into her studies, leading an ascetic life dedicated to studying. She went on to get a degree in Physics finish top in her school. She later got a degree in Maths, finishing second in her school year.

It was in Paris, that she met Pierre Curie, who was then chief of the laboratory at the school of Physics and Chemistry. He was a renowned Chemist, who had conducted many experiments on crystals and electronics. Pierre was smitten with the young Marya and asked her to marry him. The unromantic Marya initially refused, but, after persistence from Pierre she relented. The two would later become inseparable, until Pierre’s untimely death. Marie Curie work on Radioactivity Marie pursued studies in radioactivity. In 1898, this led to the discovery of two new elements. One of which she named polonium after her home country. There then followed 4 years of extensive study into the properties of radium. Using dumped uranium tailings from a nearby mine, they were very slowly, and painstakingly, able to extract a decigram of radium. Radium was discovered to have remarkable impacts. Marie actually suffered burns from the rays. It was from this discovery of radium and its properties that the science of radiation was able to develop. Using the properties of radium to burn away diseased cells in the body.

Initially radiotherapy was called ‘currietherapy’ The Curries agreed to give away their secret freely; they did not wish to patent such a valuable element. The element was soon in high demand and it began industrial scale production. For their discovery they were awarded the Davy Medal (Britain) and the Nobel Prize for physics in 1903. In 1905, Pierre was killed in a road accident, leaving Marie to look after the laboratory and her 2 children. In 1911 she was awarded a second Nobel prize in Chemistry for the discovery of actinium and further studies on radium and polonium. The success of Marie Curie also brought considerable hostility, criticism and suspicion from a male dominated science world. She suffered from the malicious rumours and accusations that flew around. The onset of World War I in 1914, led to Marie Curie dedicating her time to the installation of X ray machines in hospitals. Marie understood that x ray machines would easily be able to located shrapnel, enabling better treatment for soldiers. By, the end of the first world war, over a million soldiers had been examined by her X ray units.

At the end of the First World War she returned to the Institute of Radium in Paris, and also took great pride in serving the fledgling League of Nations. She also published a book – radioactivity which encompassed her great ideas on science. Marie Curie died in 1934 from Cancer. It was an unfortunate side effect of her own ground-breaking studies into radiation which were to help so many people. Marie Curie pushed back many frontiers in science; and at the same time set a new bar for female academic and scientific achievement. Citation : Pettinger, Tejvan . “Biography of Marie Curie “, Oxford, UK – . Last updated 15th June. 2012 The Inner World of Marie Curie Marie Curie - Mother of Modern Physics Marie Curie • first famous woman scientist in the modern world • "Mother of Modern Physics" -- pioneer in research about radioactivity, a word she coined • First woman awarded a Ph.D.

in research science in Europe, first woman professor at the Sorbonne • Discovered and isolated polonium and radium, and established the nature of radiation and beta rays Nobel Laureate: 1903 (Physics) and 1911 (Chemistry) -- first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize, first person to win Nobel Prizes in two different scientific disciplines Also Known As: Marie Sklodowska Curie, Mrs. Pierre Curie, Marie Sklodowska, Marja Sklodowska, Marja Sklodowska Curie Marie Curie Biography: Marie Curie was born in Warsaw, the youngest of five children. Her father was a physics teacher, her mother, who died when Maria was 11, was also an educator. After graduating with high honors in her early schooling, Marie Curie found herself without options in Poland for higher education. continue reading below our video Profile of Marie Curie She spent some time as a governess, and in 1891 followed her sister, already a gynecologist, to Paris. In Paris, Marie Curie enrolled at the Sorbonne.

Marie Curie graduated in first place in physics (1893), then, on a scholarship, returned for a degree in mathematics in which she took second place (1894). She had already begun to work as a researcher, and it was through her work that she met Pierre Curie in 1894 when he was 35 years of age. They were married on July 26 , 1895. Their first child, Irene, was born in 1897. Marie Curie continued work on her research and began work as a physics lecturer at a girls' school. Radioactivity Inspired by work on radioactivity in uranium by Henri Becquerel, Marie Curie began research on other elements. First she discovered radioactivity in thorium, then demonstrated that the radioactivity is not a property of an interaction between elements but is an atomic property. On April 12 , 1898, she published her hypothesis of a still-unknown radioactive element, and worked with pitchblende and chalcocite, both uranium ores, to isolate this element. Pierre joined her in this research.

Marie Curie and Pierre Curie thus discovered first polonium (named for her native Poland) and then radium. On January 12 , 1902, Marie Curie isolated pure radium, and her 1903 dissertation resulted in the first advanced scientific research degree to be awarded to a woman in France -- the first doctorate in science awarded to a woman in all of Europe. In 1903, for their work, Marie Curie, her husband Pierre, and Henry Becquerel, were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. It was also in 1903 that Marie and Pierre lost a child, born prematurely. In 1904, Pierre was given a professorship at the Sorbonne for his work. The professorship established more financial security for the Curie family -- Pierre's father had moved in to help care for the children. That same year, the Curies established the use of radiation therapy for cancer and lupus, and their second daughter, Eve, was born. She was later to write a biography of her mother.

From Wife to Professor But security was short-lived, as Pierre was killed suddenly in 1906 when he was run over by a horse-drawn carriage on a Paris street. This left Marie Curie a widow with responsibility for raising her two young daughters. Marie Curie was offered a national pension, but turned it down. A month after Pierre's death, she was offered his chair at the Sorbonne, and she accepted. Two years later she was elected a full professor -- the first woman to hold a chair at the Sorbonne. Further Work Marie Curie spent the next years organizing her research, supervising the research of others, and raising funds. Her Treatise on Radioactivity was published in 1910. Early in 1911, Marie Curie was denied election to the French Academy of Sciences by one vote. Emile Hilaire Amagat said of the vote, "Women cannot be part of the Institute of France." Marie Curie refused to have her name resubmitted for nomination and refused to allow the Academy to publish any of her work for ten years. Marie Curie was appointed director of the Institute for Radioactivity in Warsaw that year, and she was awarded a second Nobel Prize.

Tempering her successes that year was a scandal: a newspaper editor alleged an affair between Marie Curie and a married scientist. He denied the charges, and the controversy ended when the editor and scientist arranged a duel, but neither fired. Years later, Marie and Pierre's granddaughter married the grandson of the scientist which whom she may have had the affair. During World War I, Marie Curie found chose to support the French war effort actively. She put her prize winnings into war bonds and fitted ambulances with portable x-ray equipment for medical purposes, driving the vehicles to the front lines. She established two hundred permanent x-ray installations in France and Belgium. After the war, her daughter Irene joined Marie Curie as an assistant at the laboratory. Curie Foundation was established in 1920 to work on medical applications for radium. Marie Curie took an important trip to the United States in 1921 to accept the generous gift of a gram of pure radium for research. In 1924, she published her biography of her husband. Illness and Death The work of Marie Curie, her husband, and colleagues with radioactivity was done in ignorance of its effect on human health.

Marie Curie and her daughter Irene contracted leukemia, apparently induced by exposure to high levels of radioactivity. The notebooks of Marie Curie are still so radioactive that they cannot be handled. Marie Curie's health was declining seriously by the end of the 1920s. Cataracts contributed to failing vision. Marie Curie retired to a sanatorium, with her daughter Eve as her companion. Marie Curie died of pernicious anemia, also most likely an effect of the radioactivity in her work, in 1934. Religion: Marie Curie's family religion was Roman Catholic, but she became an anticlerical atheist on the death of her mother and older sister. More women's history biographies, by name:

Question: Chemist and physicist Marie Curie was born in which modern-day European country?
Answer: Poland